Capital or small ‘S’?

The gravestone sentence read, “I believe in the communion of  saints.” That’s lifted from the “Apostle’s Creed” written by the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. What has that got to do  with our houseboy? He snipped Blessed Pedro Calungsod’s picture from Inquirer’s front page.

Our ancestors prayed this most widely used  creed. We do, too, at Sunday Mass, often by rote, regrettably, with scant thought of what  it asserts.

Yet, it  anchors  what  our parents knew as  “Todos los  Santos.” “All  Saints’  Day” is  marked on Nov. 1. Pope Gregory IV, in 837 A.D., broadened this to honor not only  martyrs, but all who’ve passed on in grace, whether known or  forgotten.

“All  Souls’ Day” follows on Nov. 2. “It is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead,” the Book of Maccabees says. Abbot Odilo of Cluny, in 998 A.D., started this remembrance in Benedictine  monasteries. The  rite  spread throughout the church—and the Philippines.

On the eve of All Souls’ Day, crowds jostle into hastily cleaned cemeteries to pray before  freshly painted tombs. Crowds can uncork bouts of giddy claustrophobia. So, some families visit  cemeteries earlier.

The “Todos Los Santos” message, however,  persists: A community of believers share  across the divide of death, grace that surges into eternal life.

“Today, you will be with me in paradise,” the dying thief was assured by his co-crucified.  The Samaritan woman at the well had a tutorial on this. Paul addressed his letter to “the saints” at Ephesus.

Indeed, there are scores  of  small letter “s”  saints.” Maids, teachers, barbers  to priests and market vendors. Despite flaws, these obscure men and women serve God in neighbor.  “Here comes everybody”s feast,” author James Joyce wrote.

Then there are the capital “S” saints. Their names ring out, when  the Litany of Saints is chanted.  Mary, mother of  Christ  with  Joseph, Francis of  Assisi, Teresa of  Avila, Ignatius  Loyola, Therese of Lisieux;  Lorenzo Ruiz of Manila—and  “San Pedro  Calungsod,” if  Inquirer’s  Oct. 28 editorial proves right.

“No further questions,” the Causes of Saints Congregation said on concluding it’s Oct. 19 session, that editorial noted.  Members  forwarded to the Pope, their recommendation  that the 17-year old catechist from the Visayas be raised to the altar.

“Afirmativea vota dal tutti cardinali e dal santo padere per la canonizatione del beato Pedro Calungsod,” read  a Facebook posting by the postulator, Ricardo Cardinal Vidal. “All  cardinals voted affirmatively to recommend the Pope canonize Blessed  Pedro Calungsod.”

In  March 2005, then Pope John Paul  II  beatified  Calungsod—the last step  before canonization. The local church celebrates his feast day on April 2. A Calungsod shrine  stands within the archbishop of Cebu’s compound.

Benedict XVI makes the final decision. He’ll  review reports by the cardinals and medical panel. Among the cases studied is that of a “brain dead” woman who works in Cebu today. “When  the process is over, we can talk about it,” co-postulator Msgr. Ildebrando Leyson  demurs.

Two Filipinas wait in the canonization queue. One is Isabel Larrañaga Ramirez who founded Sisters of Charity of the Sacred Heart in early 17th century. In 1999, John Paul II elevated her  to “venerable.” The other is a Chinay.  Mother Ignacia del Espiritu Santo who set up  the Religious of Virgin Mary congregation in 1684. In  2007, Benedict XVI also named her “venerable.”

Calungsod and Fr. Diego de San Vitores were martyred in Guam in April 1672. Much of what is  known of Calungsod is in the Cebu archdiocese’s ’“Deposition” to the Congregation of Saints. “This depended… on the Positio prepared for the beatification of De San Vitores for the dioceses of Manila and Agana.”

San Vitores’ “policy for his companions was they be unarmed,” historian  John Schumacher, SJ, writes in Philippine Studies. As a young man, Calungsod could  have escaped. But he choose to defend San Vitores who “was half blind,” all sources emphasize. “San Vitores  was helpless without his companion, who led him by a rope around his waist!”

In shielding San Vitores, Calungsod took   spear thrusts and catana (machete) blows.  Attackers Hirao and Matapang then turned on the Jesuit  who died with “words of  forgiveness.” Their bodies were dumped into the sea, bound together.

He was “joven bisayo” or young, all 17th century documents reveal, Loyola House of  Studies’ Catalino Arevalo, SJ  notes. Did he come from Tigabauan? Fr. Pedro Chirino established, in this Iloilo town, the first  Jesuit school for boys in the Philippines.

Starting a new mission in Guam, the Jesuits were joined by “the brightest and the best” students. Did these 17 Filipino  teenagers sail from Cebu?  Calungsod family traditions say a  boy, only 11 or 12, joined Jesuits in Mactan, then traveled to islands “near Hawaii” and was   killed there.

Like  San Lorenzo Ruiz, was Calungsod  an  “overseas foreign worker”? Canonization may come to a country of OFWs but “no longer a  nation of believers.” Only  21 percent of urban students  believe in life after the grave, a survey by  McCann Erickson and  Philippine Jesuits found.

Majority or 88 percent believe in a Supreme Being. But only 15 percent were instructed in their faith by parents. “The phenomenon of bursting churches is actually misleading,” notes Windhover magazine. “Their doctrinal foundation and catechetical instruction seem to be faltering.”

Our houseboy pasted  Calungsod’s cutout from Inquirer on to cardboard, with a makeshift stand. With his wife and two young daughters, Airen says  they pray for Blessed Pedro’s intercession.

Isn’t that the “communion of saints?” We itched to ask. “How about  coffee?” we requested instead.